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Singing and playing to tracks. Does anyone care anymore?

pocket aces

Aces back to back
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I remember when it was career suicide if a singer was caught lip syncing and faking it onstage. Now it seems that it has become accepted. What do you think about this? Dua Lipa litterly dropped her mic during a performance, and the vocals kept coming. When she finally found it, the crowd cheered. It is not just pop anymore either. It is creeping into rock too. What do music fans think of this? How would you feel if you paid $500 for a ticket only to find out what you watched was fake? Anybody have stories of seeing obviously faked performances?
 
I'd be pissed. If I wanted to listen to a recording, I'd just stay home, play the song, and save my money.
 
The talented ones don't do it. The reason this is being done is because we are getting more and more "artists" who can't actually sing without auto tune.
 
The talented ones don't do it. The reason this is being done is because we are getting more and more "artists" who can't actually sing without auto tune.
I'm not sure talent has everything to do with it. There is an idea that it needs to be perfect. Live music isn't about perfection, and actually the imperfections can make a show memorable. There is also those that stay too long at the party too. They can't do it anymore. Paul Stanley comes to mind.
 
I think the mainstream music industry in general reached peak quality in the late 90's. It's been downhill ever since.

Most artists don't even write their own songs. Among those that do, they are singing old songs that have been repackaged.

It's corporations who own the music, so they can instruct their artists to sing whatever they want them to sing.

The drooling masses mostly don't care anymore. A lot of songs on the radio don't even sound like real human voices these days.
 
I think the mainstream music industry in general reached peak quality in the late 90's. It's been downhill ever since.

Most artists don't even write their own songs. Among those that do, they are singing old songs that have been repackaged.

It's corporations who own the music, so they can instruct their artists to sing whatever they want them to sing.

The drooling masses mostly don't care anymore. A lot of songs on the radio don't even sound like real human voices these days.
There are some great new acts out there that play live and proud. Just have to find them. The industry is so saturated with all the technology available. It is so hard for new bands to get noticed. Add to the fact that the touring industry has changed. I saw Journey a couple months back and Toto was opening. Nothing against Toto, but that slot 20 years ago would have been reserved for an up and coming artist.
 
There are some great new acts out there that play live and proud. Just have to find them. The industry is so saturated with all the technology available. It is so hard for new bands to get noticed. Add to the fact that the touring industry has changed. I saw Journey a couple months back and Toto was opening. Nothing against Toto, but that slot 20 years ago would have been reserved for an up and coming artist.

There is always "good music" out there, but the way that music is curated by modern audiences, I find, is consistently subpar. It's evidenced in how music events are organized. You've provided a good example. They put mediocre acts next to major headliners and it just makes no sense. I'm not taking about personal preferences here. Anyone with an ear for music can tell the problem. The problem with corporate ownership of much of the music industry is that they instruct audiences (especially younger ones) which music to care about. In turn, those audiences show up to events showcasing mediocre artists who, when I was a lot younger, would not even be appearing on stage yet until they refined their quality.
 
There is always "good music" out there, but the way that music is curated by modern audiences, I find, is consistently subpar. It's evidenced in how music events are organized. You've provided a good example. They put mediocre acts next to major headliners and it just makes no sense. I'm not taking about personal preferences here. Anyone with an ear for music can tell the problem. The problem with corporate ownership of much of the music industry is that they instruct audiences (especially younger ones) which music to care about. In turn, those audiences show up to events showcasing mediocre artists who, when I was a lot younger, would not even be appearing on stage yet until they refined their quality.
It's actually quite the opposite. Most tours stack main event acts. Are you saying Toto in my example is mediocre? They are all accomplished musicians. Steve Lukather has performed on over 1500 recordings as a session player. They didn't fake it.
 
I fronted bands for years, so I've thought a lot about this. From my experience, I've noticed that you might be able to keep your tone and range for many years if you don't push through a blown voice night after night, but you're eventually going to realize that you can't have the resiliency of a twenty eight year old voice for your entire career. Back then, i could sing at practice six nights a week for hours each time. By 35, i improved and expanded some of my abilities, but three hour shows two nights in a row became more difficult. We weren't famous, so i was able to take breaks in between shows. If i did a really long recording session, i could rest my voice for a couple days. Some singers don't get to do that. Even on a blown voice day, there are little things you can do to make it happen, but if you work a blown voice into passable singing too often, you can do permanent damage. The schedules singers keep are brutal, and you can be a cold or a bad vocal mix away from messing your voice up for a while or worse.

I don't think that an engineer fixed a sour note of mine with autotune, but we did punch in multiple takes for records. I did not have a live backing track at our shows. However, if i were on tour right now at my age playing five nights in a row, would i cut a good track of the show just in case? Depends. I wouldn't want to do that, but i also wouldn't sacrifice my voice for the rest of my life just to keep it real for one night.

I pushed through multiple times, but i still have most of my voice. I have been working it back into shape lately for fun and for the calming effect of it. I might sing again publicly someday, but I'm doing other things right now. Do i like backing live tracks over pure live? Not really. Can i say that i would have never used one in a pinch if singing was my main job? Not if I'm being honest.
 
I fronted bands for years, so I've thought a lot about this. From my experience, I've noticed that you might be able to keep your tone and range for many years if you don't push through a blown voice night after night, but you're eventually going to realize that you can't have the resiliency of a twenty eight year old voice for your entire career. Back then, i could sing at practice six nights a week for hours each time. By 35, i improved and expanded some of my abilities, but three hour shows two nights in a row became more difficult. We weren't famous, so i was able to take breaks in between shows. If i did a really long recording session, i could rest my voice for a couple days. Some singers don't get to do that. Even on a blown voice day, there are little things you can do to make it happen, but if you work a blown voice into passable singing too often, you can do permanent damage. The schedules singers keep are brutal, and you can be a cold or a bad vocal mix away from messing your voice up for a while or worse.

I don't think that an engineer fixed a sour note of mine with autotune, but we did punch in multiple takes for records. I did not have a live backing track at our shows. However, if i were on tour right now at my age playing five nights in a row, would i cut a good track of the show just in case? Depends. I wouldn't want to do that, but i also wouldn't sacrifice my voice for the rest of my life just to keep it real for one night.

I pushed through multiple times, but i still have most of my voice. I have been working it back into shape lately for fun and for the calming effect of it. I might sing again publicly someday, but I'm doing other things right now. Do i like backing live tracks over pure live? Not really. Can i say that i would have never used one in a pinch if singing was my main job? Not if I'm being honest.
Avenged Sevenfold cancelled a whole tour because the singer had vocal issues. That's better than faking it in my opinion. Awesome insight though, and hope you get out there again. I can't sing a lick so I'm jealous haha.
 
My voice is weird, I guess. Some days I wake up and can lay a track perfectly. Other days, I sound like a 12 year old boy whose voice is changing.
 
Avenged Sevenfold cancelled a whole tour because the singer had vocal issues. That's better than faking it in my opinion. Awesome insight though, and hope you get out there again. I can't sing a lick so I'm jealous haha.
There was a lot of pressure to work through it just to avoid canceling even if it was a small show. I did it unless I couldn't. I thought more about this, and a backing track would require significant preparation for the whole band. We would have to play everything to a click track, for example. I'd be unable to do most of the impromptu parts of the show. It would basically have to be the same show each time with only the song order being modifiable. We could have pulled it off, but I would prefer not to have to do that.
 
There was a lot of pressure to work through it just to avoid canceling even if it was a small show. I did it unless I couldn't. I thought more about this, and a backing track would require significant preparation for the whole band. We would have to play everything to a click track, for example. I'd be unable to do most of the impromptu parts of the show. It would basically have to be the same show each time with only the song order being modifiable. We could have pulled it off, but I would prefer not to have to do that.
That reminds me of an interview I heard with Lizzy Hale of Halestorm who wanted to sing a song with a band she liked that they shared a festival bill with. She couldn’t do it because they were so tracked up that they couldn’t do anything impromptu like that.
 
That reminds me of an interview I heard with Lizzy Hale of Halestorm who wanted to sing a song with a band she liked that they shared a festival bill with. She couldn’t do it because they were so tracked up that they couldn’t do anything impromptu like that.
Yeah, it would remove flexibility.
 
What are the earpieces for?

What are the singers hearing over the mike?
 
What are the earpieces for?

What are the singers hearing over the mike?
The ear buds deliver their personal monitoring mixes. Most modern stages don't have speaker monitors anymore, and many don't even have amplifiers on stage.
 
The ear buds deliver their personal monitoring mixes. Most modern stages don't have speaker monitors anymore, and many don't even have amplifiers on stage.
Explain like I was from another planet…….
 
Explain like I was from another planet…….
Imagine you're on stage. You have the animal drummer right behind you and you have 2 guitarists with full stacks at full volume on either side of you. You are the singer. How are you going to hear yourself sing? You need a set of stage monitors at your feet blaring your vocals at you so you can hear yourself. But, those monitors also get picked up by your microphone and there is a high risk of feedback. So, most vocalists have moved to In Ear Monitors (IEMs) that let them hear themselves plus anything else they might need to hear to perform well, like the drums and maybe the keyboards. IEMs let each musician hear themselves plus a personalized mix of the rest of the band. I am a bassist in a jazz fusion band. When we play live I need to hear the drums and my bass over the rest of the band, then I mix in the keys and guitar at a lower volume. We are all in IEMs and each hears exactly what they want to hear.
 
Imagine you're on stage. You have the animal drummer right behind you and you have 2 guitarists with full stacks at full volume on either side of you. You are the singer. How are you going to hear yourself sing? You need a set of stage monitors at your feet blaring your vocals at you so you can hear yourself. But, those monitors also get picked up by your microphone and there is a high risk of feedback. So, most vocalists have moved to In Ear Monitors (IEMs) that let them hear themselves plus anything else they might need to hear to perform well, like the drums and maybe the keyboards. IEMs let each musician hear themselves plus a personalized mix of the rest of the band. I am a bassist in a jazz fusion band. When we play live I need to hear the drums and my bass over the rest of the band, then I mix in the keys and guitar at a lower volume. We are all in IEMs and each hears exactly what they want to hear.
Arnell from journey a few years back was having trouble singing and when they hired a new sound guy they discovered he wasn’t getting the right mix through his monitor. After fixing it he has been going strong since
 
I remember when it was career suicide if a singer was caught lip syncing and faking it onstage. Now it seems that it has become accepted. What do you think about this? Dua Lipa litterly dropped her mic during a performance, and the vocals kept coming. When she finally found it, the crowd cheered. It is not just pop anymore either. It is creeping into rock too. What do music fans think of this? How would you feel if you paid $500 for a ticket only to find out what you watched was fake? Anybody have stories of seeing obviously faked performances?
Fans should start a class action lawsuit against singers that lip sync at concerts.
 
I'll go beyond that. I'm not a fan of singers who come on with a bunch of dancers and the music's piped in or from a tape or God knows where.

I want to see the instruments played. You got a drum machine? I'm gone. Now I know bands use synthesizers and all to get the sounds they want, but the sounds that can be played I want to see played.

I grew up with bands. The Beatles, Stones, Doors, The Who, Led Zep, The Kinks, Talking Heads, Creedance. Lynard Skynard and on and on...'

They wrote the lyrics. They wrote the music. They walked on stage and played it live. That's what I saw and it's better than 90% of what I see now. Sorry, I'm old and set in my ways.
 
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